Phillies: Three players who could make or break the 2020 season

Vince Velasquez is a major concern for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Vince Velasquez is not the same pitcher that he was when he first came to Philadelphia. In his first two starts as a Phillie, he didn’t allow a run. One of those starts was a 16-strikeout shutout in which he allowed just three hits and no walks. He went into the all-star break with an 8-2 record, 3.32 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, .250 AVG against, and 93 strikeouts to just 26 walks in 78.2 innings. The future looked promising.

He stumbled to the finish line but didn’t have a bad second season at all. In 2016, he went 8-2 with a 4.12 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, .263 AVG against, and 152 strikeouts to 45 walks in 131 innings and 24 total starts. There was definitely a lot to build off of. To put it mildly, things just went south quickly after that.

In 2017, he only made 15 starts due to a finger injury and went 2-7 with a 5.13 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP. His strikeout to walk ratio was just 68 to 34. Even if you want to give him the excuse of the injury, those numbers didn’t get too much better when he was healthy for the majority of 2018. Going 9-12 with a 4.85 ERA isn’t much of an improvement.

In his most recent season, it was much of the same. He was 7-8 with a 4.91 ERA and allowed ten more home runs than he did in 2018 in 29.1 fewer innings. It truly is a mystery what happened to the old Vince Velasquez from 2016.